Vendors

When it comes to security, Symantec says Surround Yourself. At least that's the message it was sending to an estimated 1000 customers and partners that gathered in Sydney for its annual user conference, Symantec Vision.

Symantec senior vice-president and chief strategy officer, Angela Tucci, outlined the company’s current road plan at the event, as well as the key trends that Symantec believes will shape the IT industry for the year ahead.

With the Cloud already going mainstream in the enterprise space, Tucci expects businesses to continue to benefit from the technology, as it lets them experiment with different business models without significant investment.

The challenge now for Symantec is to overcome availability and accessibility challenges with the Cloud, as well as continually improve efficiency.

With data now being created at an unprecedented rate, Tucci also sees managing the often fragmented data as becoming an issue for business.

While once viewed as a cheap solution, storage is now becoming more expensive due to the high rate of data being consumed.

Looking at the threat landscape, the biggest thread identified by Tucci is the “it won’t happen to us” mindset still being adopted by certain companies.

To illustrate her point, Tucci pointed out that while a driver might think that they can avoid accidents by driving safely, that does not automatically protect them from being hit by another driver.

“The variability itself is the risk,” Tucci said.

As the world’s population continues to get online, the frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks on companies are also going to evolve.

As a result, Symantec recognises the continued need for business to protect their information and for individuals to secure their online identities.

“If it matters to you, you will pay to protect it,” Tucci stated.

Symantec Asia-Pacific and Japan senior vice-president, Bernard Kwok, said Symantec exceeded its plans in the region.

Natural disasters such as earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand had generated a need for back up solutions, while high profile data breaches made customers pay more attention to the importance of protecting their data.

Kwok emphasised that it is not enough just for a business to protect their data, but it is important for them to classify which data is important to them and decide how to keep it safe.

“Data security has to be holistic, with a compliance type of approach needed to secure important data,” he said.

Kwok added that in order for a environment to be secure, “it needs to be one that is managed".

When looking towards future growth, Kwok still sees a lot of ‘white space’ existing in the Asia Pacific and Japan region, which refers to companies that are still not using Symantec products, or companies that are only using some products out of Symantec’s broader portfolio.

“We will continue to bring the message to the market and help our customers to protect and back up their data,” he said.

Symantec also used the event to announce the recipients of its 2011 Pacific Partner Awards.

Awarded in six categories, the awards recognise channel partners that have effectively delivered services and solutions to customers during the past year, and winners are selected based on such criteria as overall performance in revenue, deal registration, technical and marketing investments, and customer service excellence.

“Our partners play a critical role in meeting the diverse needs of and providing great service to our customers across Australia and New Zealand,” Symantec Asia-Pacific and Japan channels and SMB vice-president, David Dzienciol, said,

“These awards acknowledge the achievements of our partners over the past 12 months, and we hope this recognition nurtures and promotes continued excellence in the channel.”

Datastor was awarded Pacific Distributor of the Year, Dell took out the SMB Partner of the Year, and Data#3 was the Specialised Partner of the Year.

The Specialised Growth Partner of the Year awards went to Fujitsu in Australia and Gen-I in New Zealand, while the Specialised Services Partner of the Year was presented to Thomas Duryea.

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